Red-letter day: Worm moon becomes a spooky blood moon this week

USA Today

11-03-2025

Red-letter day: Worm moon becomes a spooky blood moon this week
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How to see rare 'Blood Moon' Lunar Eclipse
On the night of March 13, 2025, a total lunar eclipse will be visible across most of the Americas, as well as parts of Europe and the UK, depending on the weather.
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This week's full moon will come with a special treat – a total lunar eclipse, which will turn the moon a spooky blood red color.
While the eclipse will last from 1:47 a.m. EDT to 4:10 a.m. EDT Friday morning, March's full moon reaches peak illumination at 2:55 a.m. EDT on Friday, the Old Farmer's Almanac said.
But you don't have to wait until the middle of the night: The moon will still look nearly full when it appears above the eastern horizon late Thursday afternoon, even though the precise moment the moon is full is a few hours later.
A "blood moon" total lunar eclipse will occur late Thursday, astronomers say. Here's everything you need to know.
It will also look plenty big Wednesday and Friday nights. It looks especially vast to us when it's near the horizon because of the "moon illusion," when it looks larger there than it does when it's high in the sky.
The March full moon is known as the "worm" moon. Here's why:
Why is it called the worm moon?
For hundreds of years, people across the world, including Native Americans in the eastern and central U.S., named the months after nature's cues. Each full moon has its own name, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.
"The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon," the almanac said. "Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred."
According to NASA, the more southern tribes called this the worm moon after the earthworm casts that appeared as the ground thawed.
Total lunar eclipse 2025: What to know about this week's 'blood moon'
"It makes sense that only the southern tribes called this the worm moon," said NASA's Gordon Johnston in an online report. "When glaciers covered the northern part of North America they wiped out the native earthworms. After these glaciers melted about 12,000 years ago the more northern forests grew back without earthworms. Most of the earthworms in these areas are invasive species introduced from Europe and Asia."
Northern tribes had other names for March's full moon, including the the crow, crust, sap and sugar moon, NASA said.
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Or were they beetle larvae?
Yet another explanation: The worm moon name refers to a different sort of 'worm' – beetle larvae – which begin to emerge from the thawing bark of trees and other winter hideouts at this time of the year, the almanac said.
A "blood moon" total lunar eclipse will occur late Thursday, astronomers say. Here's everything you need to know.
According to the almanac, in the 1760s, Captain Jonathan Carver visited the Naudowessie (Dakota) and other Native American tribes and wrote that the name worm moon refers to a different sort of 'worm' − beetle larvae − which begin to emerge from the thawing bark of trees and other winter hideouts at this time.
What is a blood moon?
The blood moon is a trick of the light, when the typical whitish looking moon becomes red or ruddy brown. It happens during a total lunar eclipse when the moon is fully in Earth's shadow and a little bit of light from Earth's sunrises and sunsets falls on the surface of moon, making it appear red.
When is the next full moon?
The next full moon after the worm moon is the pink moon, which will peak April 12, 2025.
A "blood moon" total lunar eclipse will occur late Thursday, astronomers say. Here's everything you need to know.
The pink moon is named after the herb moss pink, also known as creeping phlox, moss phlox or mountain phlox. This is a plant native to the eastern United States that is one of the earliest widespread flowers of spring.
Contributing: Maria Francis, USA TODAY NETWORK; Jenna Prestininzi, Detroit Free Press